 My name is Susan Marching, and I'm the convener of Indonesian at SOAS University. Indonesian can be part of many degree programs at SOAS. And today I will talk about why you should study Indonesian at SOAS. First, I will talk about interesting facts about Indonesia. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, but it also has the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Indeed, Indonesia has a long history of Buddhism and Hinduism before Islam came. And I will discuss this in more detail in class. Indonesia is the most populous country in the world with over 270 million people, a large proportion of which is made up of young people under 30. So this is a promising sign on the Indonesian economy. Indonesia is the biggest producer, consumer and exporter of palm oil in the world, and the numbers are growing. This means that Indonesia will become a very important supplier of biofuels. And this is something you can work on if you want to study Indonesia. Because while biofuel is good source for renewable energy, palm oil causes huge deforestation. We can also say that Indonesia is a contradictory society. For instance, you may have heard that Indonesia is a patriarchal country. However, it also has the largest matrilineal society in the world. Matrilineal means surnames are transmitted from mothers and inheritance is transferred from mothers to daughters. This matrilineal society is called Minangkabal. It is in the western part of Indonesia on an island called Sumatra. According to the ethnic tradition, if you are a man and you get married, then you have to follow your wife. And if your wife gets bored of you, then tough luck, because she can kick you out of her house. Besides, Indonesia also has various societies that recognize more than two genders. For instance, the Buki Society in the eastern part of Indonesia. The Buki's people recognize five genders. Only they have words for men and women, but also female men, male women and transgender. The religious priest of the Buki Society has to be transgender. This priest is called Bisu. Why the priest has to be transgender? Because they believe that the combination of male and female elements make a person perfect. To investigate this further, you need an institution that provides you with expert in different areas and with a good library. So as is the leading institution in the UK to study about Indonesia. Let us talk a bit about the language now. Indonesia is in the top 10 most languages spoken in the world. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world with more than 18,000 islands and with over 700 living languages spoken. Indonesian became the national language of Indonesia only in 1928. At that time, it was spoken by only about 5% of the population. So Indonesia was almost everyone's second language then. Indonesian language is actually from Malay. There are some slight differences in Pakepulian grammar, but not much. So if you learn Indonesian, you will understand Malay too. So it's like a buy one, get one free. Language is also spoken in Brunei and Singapore in addition to Malaysia. I know when you learn language, you mainly learn it to converse with people but to learn Indonesian language. So as you will not only learn how to converse with people, but you will also learn about culture, history and how to think about the language analytically. For instance, I will discuss why there is hardly any gender in Indonesian language. I know English doesn't really have a grammatical gender as many other languages do, such as French, Spanish, German and Russian. English doesn't have masculine or feminine pronouns. However, English still has he and she. Whereas in Indonesian, there's only one word for he and she, dia. Why is this? Well, this is one of the topics I will discuss in class because it's just too complicated to explain it here. Many people believe that basic Indonesian is actually very easy to learn. You can master day-to-day conversation in a short time. And yes, usually my students have learned Indonesian for about a year, can go to Indonesia and get by. Indonesian is written in European alphabet, the pronunciation is phonetic and it is non-formal. Of course, we can study about the easiness of the language further in class. Is it really easy to learn? Or is there anything more complicated in the language that people fail to notice? At SOS, there are many opportunities for students to study abroad too. SOS students can also apply for several scholarships to study in Indonesia. So yes, we will have a lot of interesting discussions if you learn Indonesian language at SOS. Thank you.